Vincent Chase
Vincent "Vince" Chase is an actor on the road to stardom. Originally from Queens, in New York, Vince along with his half-brother, Johnny "Drama" Chase and friends Turtle and E arrived in Los Angeles with Vince hoping to further expand his career. Vince made a risky choice in picking the indie film "Queens Boulevard" instead of a larger, more commercial film. Luckily, Vince's turn in "QB" paid off, leading to him being cast in James Cameron's blockbuster "Aquaman," a role that catapulted him to the top of Hollywood's power lists. Unfortunately, the good fortune didn't last, as Vince was dumped from "Aquaman 2" after a disagreement with the studio. Other problems derailed Vince's involvement in both "Medellin" and "I Wanna Be Sedated," leading to the possibility that Vince's time on the A-list may be short-lived. It seemed like Vince's luck might have changed when he was cast in the big budget studio film "Smoke Jumpers" but even that didn't go as planned, when shortly into production Vince was fired by the director. However, things finally start to turn for Vince as he stages his comeback with his new movie "Gatsby", a smash hit both critically and at the box office. In Season 7, Vince suffered a near-death experience that left him craving any kind of highs which eventually resulted in him developing a drug addiction that resulted in him being arrested and as such, Vince entered rehab for three months to get clean. A year later, Vince met journalist Sophia Lear and after a rough start, the two eventually got together and became engaged before flying to Paris to get married. Background Vincent Chase was born June 1, 1972 and grew up in Queens, New York with neighborhood friends Eric Murphy, Salvatore "Turtle" Assante, Dom and older half-brother Johnny 'Drama' Chase. Vince's father was an alcoholic, and his absence in the episode "Aquamom" suggests that he is estranged from the family. Eric mentioned in a Season 1 episode that Vince went to the High School of Performing Arts in New York City (now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). Vince's older brother "Drama" is also an actor and has been living in Hollywood for at least twelve years, but with considerably less success. Chase's personal life has been an area of great speculation as he has claimed to have slept with over 1,000 women. Throughout the series, Vince talks about how he and his entourage are "living the life" after growing up with little money, at one point saying that "I came from nothing, and as much as I like the toys, I really don't need them" when told that offers for him are drying up. He is eager to share the financial and social spoils of his current stardom with them, who he thinks of as his family. While at first glance it seems that his friends are just leeches, they prove to be the ones he can depend on through thick and thin. Vince is around 33 years old, his 29th birthday being the main storyline in the season 3 episode "Less Than 30". Vince's full ethnic background has never been revealed. It is implied that he has Latino ancestry when Eric argues that Vince should get the role of Pablo Escobar over actor Tom Cruise because "Tom Cruise isn't even Hispanic"; Johnny Drama also references his (and presumably Vince's) "Chilean blood" in the episode "The Sundance Kids." Vince claims to be part Japanese, after his agent, Ari Gold, made a racial slur referring to Japanese people. Vince replies, "C'mon Ari, my grandfather is Japanese." Vince has also stated that he is Italian during an interview for Vanity Fair. Vince and Drama are also part Irish, as revealed in the episode "I Love You Too." Season 1 Vincent Chase is a young Hollywood movie star, described by fans and critics as potentially the best young actor of his generation. Chase moved to Los Angeles, following his half brother Johnny Chase with friend Sal "Turtle" when the two were 24. He started his career appearing in commercials for Mentos, soon signing with agent Ari Gold who got him doing minor roles on television and cinema, the first of which was a guest spot on JAG. During this time, he dated and proposed to Mandy Moore, who rejected his proposal. Soon after his best friend Eric Murphy quit his job at an Italian restaurant, dropped out of Queensborough Community College and moved out west to LA on Vince's request. Chase's breakout role was as the lead in the film Head On, co-starring Jessica Alba. After Head On, he was offered a role in the action film Matterhorn, but he passed. (Colin Farrell ends up getting offered the role, but Matterhorn never makes it to production). Instead, Vince chooses to star in the independent film Queens Boulevard, based on the advice of his manager and best friend "E". The film is about a man presumably running from the law in Queens, New York, and was directed by eccentric filmmaker Billy Walsh. Queens Boulevard (or Q.B.) was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival upon completion and wins the Grand Jury Award. Season 2 Because of his performance in Q.B., Vince is offered the title role in the film Aquaman, which was to be directed by James Cameron. The movie becomes a massive success, making $116 million in ticket sales on its opening weekend, breaking the record set by Spider-Man. After the success of Aquaman, Vince was offered the role of Pablo Escobar in the bio-pic Medellín, a film that he discovered and wanted to do before Aquaman, and which was set to be directed by Crash director Paul Haggis. But conflict arose when a sequel to Aquaman was greenlit with the same start date as Medellín. Medellín was the film Vince wanted to do, and he did attempt to work out a deal to do both movies at once. However, Alan Gray, the head of Warner Bros. Studios reneged on an earlier promise to allow Vince to do Medellín ''and after Vince refuses to meet with Gray to discuss the sequel, Vince is subsequently replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal for the ''Aquaman sequel (mirroring the rumors in real-life as to how Gyllenhall nearly replaced Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2) and banished from making any Warner Bros. film to life. During his trouble of getting out of his Aquaman contract, Vince found out that he had already lost his role in Medellín to Benicio del Toro, leaving him jobless. Season 3 Eric Murphy then found, via washed-up legendary producer Bob Ryan, a new project for Vince in a film entitled I Wanna Be Sedated, a biopic about punk-rocker Joey Ramone and his band The Ramones. But after turmoil between Bob Ryan and Vince's agent Ari Gold, the project was sold to Warner Bros. Alan Gray made it clear the film will never be made and refused to offer Vince another film for the rest of his career. This led to Vince firing Ari because of mishandling the Ramone project and Bob Ryan. His new agent Amanda Daniels found him a new project entitled The Glimpses of the Moon, an adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel, to be directed by Sam Mendes. But Vince soon found out it might still be possible to get Medellín from his former agent Ari. In hopes of getting his dream project, Vince consequently began procrastinating on Glimpses. Vince also begins a brief romantic relationship with Amanda, after she boldly propositions him for sex, so they can "get it out of the way" - since sexual tension existed between the two ever since they began their agent-client relationship. After officially receiving an offer for Medellín at the very last minute, complications arose during the negotiations, which were taking place during the holiday of Yom Kippur. The film was dumped by the producer as a result. Feeling Amanda had let him down through this, Vince confronts her about it and plans on firing her, only to find out that the death of the project had been out of her hands. Amanda then leaves Vince, both professionally and romantically. Vince then purchases the script, Medellín, but only after selling his home. Once the script was purchased, negotiations were held with film producer Nick "Nicky" Rubenstein, to finance the project for $30 million. Vince turned to Billy Walsh as the director for the film. (At the time, Walsh was directing pornographic films under the alias "Wally Balls".) Season 4 During the production of Medellin, a documentary was filmed showing the process and conflict that "E", Vince and Walsh go through to complete the project. Walsh decides at the beginning of filming that the film's ending is no good, and wants to rewrite the end on his own, much to Eric's dismay. The film does get completed and for now, all is good. After the Medellín project was completed, Walsh submitted it to the Cannes Film Festival, where it was accepted. Someone then leaked a trailer of Medellín onto YouTube, and people began to rave over the film. Hype began to build so greatly that Vince and Walsh were offered the film adaptation of the novel Lost in the Clouds. Pre-production on the film Lost in the Clouds began, with Vince slated to star and Walsh to write/direct. But when Walsh wasn't able to adapt the novel, he began work on a script called Silo, a post-apocalypse film set in the year 2075. After Ari somehow manages to sell the studio on the new project, Lost in the Clouds was dumped and pre-production on Silo began. In the meantime, while Walsh was busy writing the script for Silo, Vincent gained an office in his manager's management group, known as The Murphy Group. When the Cannes Film Festival finally came around, hype for Medellín had grown so large that, upon arrival, Vince and Walsh were receiving multi-million-dollar offers for the film before it even premiered. The highest bidder was Yair Marx, who offered $75 million. Once the movie was finally screened, however, the reception in the theatre was overwhelmingly negative. Marx withdrew his offer, but Harvey Weingard offered to buy it for one dollar. Opting to look at what little bright side there was to things, Ari told Vince, "You should have seen Shakespeare in Love before Harvey got his scissor-hands on it." Season 5 Medellín directly goes to DVD and is savagely reviewed by Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips. Vince also goes on to receive a Razzie nomination for "Worst Actor". The failure also apparently lead to Silo being scrapped, and Vincent and Turtle decide to decompress in a tropical hideaway, surrounded by multiple gorgeous women. After a few months pass, Ari is informed by producer Carl Ertz that he wants Vince for his next film, Danger Beach a mid-budget genre film. Eric informs Vince of the good news, but Vince is content to go out on Medellín. Eric, Ari, and Drama fly to Mexico to get Vince to come back to L.A. for a meeting with Ertz. However, Ertz never really wanted Vince for the film to begin with. The meeting was just a ploy to get Emile Hirsch and his agent, Ari's rival Adam Davies, to do the film for less money. Despite the fact that the offer wasn't real, Vince decides that he can't go out on a box office bomb, and needs to find a new hit film to regain his stardom. After Vince discovers that there are no studios willing to offer him any leading roles, Eric discovers a good script for Vince from his newest clients, unknown writers Nick and L.B., called Nine Brave Souls. It is about nine firefighters on the night before the biggest fire they've ever fought. Ari does not want Vince to do another independent film because his last indie, Medellín, tanked. Figuring Vince was not going to star in Nick and L.B.'s film, Eric brings the script to Amanda. Amanda likes the script and sends it to her client Edward Norton. Edward Norton wants to make the film, but with more action sequences. However, after Ari finally reads the script he wants Vince to do the movie. Vince and Ari try to sell the script, newly titled Smoke Jumpers, to studios with Vince playing the lead role. The studios wanted the script, but not with Vince in the leading role. After realizing he wasn't going to be cast as the lead, Vincent decides to play a supporting role. Ari is set to sell the script to Steve Parles for $500,000 with Vince cast as Ray in the second lead role. Unfortunately for Vince, Edward Norton wants to buy the script along with Alan Gray, head of Warner Bros. Studios, for $1,000,000 against $2,000,000 if the movie is made. Vince loses his supporting role because Warner Bros. purchases the film. Vince now has a difficult career move to make. He can hold out for a movie he likes, and risk going bankrupt, or he can do a new Benji film for $3,000,000. Thinking it will hurt his chances to regain his status as a movie star, Vince chooses to forgo Benji. He decides he must find a way to get back on Smoke Jumpers. Ari takes matters into his own hands to try to get Vince back on Smoke Jumpers. Ari plans a seemingly harmless day of golf with Alan Gray. Ari knows Alan is a compulsive gambler so he intends to hustle Alan, and bet Vince into the movie. However, his plan backfires because of the presence of his enemy Bob Ryan and because Alan's golf instructor is none other than Phil Mickelson. After Ari loses a close game to Alan, Alan becomes enraged because Ari brought up the subject of Vince and Smoke Jumpers after promising he wouldn't. Alan becomes so angry that he has a heart attack on the golf course and dies. At Alan's funeral, Ari speaks with John Ellis, Alan's boss. Ari tells Ellis that Alan promised Vincent Smoke Jumpers, but Ellis has other things to discuss with Ari. He wants Ari to take Alan's old job and run Warner Bros. Pictures. This would put Ari in a position to not only get Vince back on Smoke Jumpers, but to give Vince roles in any future films financed by Warner Bros. Studio. When Vince hears this information, he has a bittersweet feeling because he wants to do Smoke Jumpers, but he doesn't want to lose Ari as his agent. Ari reconsiders taking the job, but gets bad news from his fellow Hollywood friend and former flame, Dana Gordon; Vince's former agent Amanda Daniels would run the studio if Ari doesn't take the job. Ari and Vince do not have a good relationship with Amanda after she fired him as her client. Ari goes to Amanda's office to try and bury the hatchet with Amanda. Ari offers to turn down the job if she puts Vince in Smoke Jumpers. Amanda calls Ari's bluff, thinking that he is going to turn down the job anyway. This makes Ari extremely angry, and he storms out of Amanda's office to go meet with John Ellis. Vince goes to meet with Ari under the assumption that Ari had taken the position at the studio. However, to everyone's surprise Ari turned down the job. He informs Vince and Eric that he recommended his friend Dana Gordon, and she was given the job as studio head instead of Amanda. During Vince's meeting with Ari, Dana calls to thank Ari for the recommendation. On speakerphone, Dana assures Vincent that he is in Smoke Jumpers for his full quote. Ari is still Vince's agent, Eric's best friend's career is back on track, Vince is no longer in danger of going bankrupt, and is no longer in danger of ending his movie career on a box office bomb. Unfortunately, Vince has heated confrontations with Verner Vollstedt, the director of Smoke Jumpers, who at first gives away most of Vince's lines to co-star Jason Patric, believing Vince lacks the proper acting skills for a potential Oscar film and tries to point out some of his alleged bad acting. Vince gives his best at a scripted dramatic scene, but Verner's constant nagging, condescension and exclaims that Vince can't perform are the last straw for Vince. The director fires Vince from the set of the movie. This leads to an altercation between the director and Dana, Ari, Vince, E, and John Ellis. John Ellis makes an executive decision to drop the project and Vince, E, Turtle, and Drama head back to Queens. Season 6 Vince is offered a lead role (Nick Carraway) in Martin Scorsese's adaptation/update of The Great Gatsby set in the 1980s, courtesy of Gus Van Sant's liking of Vince's Smoke Jumpers footage. After the massive success of Gatsby, Vince is set to star in the upcoming biopic about Enzo Ferrari directed by Frank Darabont. After production of the Ferrari movie was delayed, Vince spends most of his time relaxing. During this period of delayed production on Ferrari, Vince is paid $4,000,000 to provide the voice of a dog in an animated movie (although the actual title and success of the movie is never revealed). One night he awoke and heard noises and came to the conclusion that the house had been broken into, so Ari recommended a high-security connection that he had to hopefully track down the stalker, but it turned out to be sorority girls who had stolen Turtle's boxers because he was Jamie-Lynn Sigler's boyfriend. Vince then traveled to Italy with Johnny Drama and Turtle to begin the Ferrari picture, while Eric stayed in LA with his new fiancee Sloan McQuewick. Season 7 In the Season 7 premiere episode, Stunted, Vince is in the process of filming an action movie being directed by Nick Cassavetes with the movie progressing well, until Cassavetes asks Vince to do a risky stunt. Not wanting to be considered a weakling or even a pussy, Vince agrees to do the stunt despite Turtle, E, Drama and even Ari objecting and during the performance, later crashes into a wall with the scene leaving the others horrified. However, Vince later emerges from the wreckage, fine although he is later left deeply shaken by the near-death experience which triggers a change in his attitude but not for the better. In Buzzed, Vince, still recovering from his pain meds decides to shave his head much to E and Turtle's surprise although Drama approves, claiming that both he and Vince look more alike than ever while E wonders if Vince got approval from Cassavetes to do so with Vince lying and saying that Cassavetes said it was fine because they're wrapped. Later, while at the Murray Berenson Company, Vince explores the company while attempting to hit on E's secretary, Jennie who turns him down and in the process, Vince meets E's colleague, Scott Lavin with the two men beginning to spend together which culminates with both men jumping out of a plane at the end of the episode much to E and Ari's horror. Vince's new hairstyle also sends Cassavetes into a rage as he planned on doing a couple of reshoots of the film but now that won't because according to Cassavetes, Vince looks like "Tobey Maguire from Brothers". In Dramedy, Vince continues hanging out with Lavin and the two even attend an auction together before holding a house party that ends with Vince sleeping with two girls while E and Lavin square up to each other. In Bottoms Up, while on at a nightclub, Vince meets porn star, Sasha Grey and the two begin embarking on a relationship with both of them even taking drugs and having sex. Vince later shows up to an important meeting regarding a new superhero movie, drunk and brings Sasha with him. In Tequila and Coke, Vince shows up to a meeting, high on cocaine which is met with disapproval and anger by Ari despite E strongly insisting that Vince hasn't done any kind of coke. As the Season drags on, Vince becomes increasingly agitated and high strung, hinting at cocaine addiction which is essentially confirmed when Lloyd discovers a large amount of cocaine at Vince's house in Porn Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. In Lose Yourself, Vince finally flies off the rails, breaking up with Sasha for good and moving into a hotel room. Vince later gets into a fight with Eminem at the opening party for his album, "Recovery" with Vince being beaten by Eminem while Drama tries to intervene but finds himself restrained by bodyguards. In the last few minutes of the episode, with Sasha, Billy, Drama and Scott are at the hospital with E and Turtle later joining them as they all try to take stock of what's happened. Vince emerges from a hospital room, bruised and bloodied while telling his friends that they got what they wanted because he's officially out of control. A police officer later emerges, producing Vince's secret stash of cocaine and showing to the group with everyone especially Turtle, E and Drama being left stunned by the news. As such, Vince is presumably arrested and forced to attend rehab for the next three months. Season 8 After spending three months (90 days) in rehab, being treated for a drug addiction, Vince emerges, a stronger person, having regained his old attitude and personality before his near death experience and upon leaving rehab, Vince later rebuilds his friendships again while the group, Drama especially go to great lengths to make sure that Vince doesn't go back to his old ways by disposing of alcohol or drugs around the house. Vince later concocts an idea to make a movie involving the plight of a buried miner, intending to get Drama cast in the role. He ends up writing a 20 page treatment, that surprises Ari and Dana Gordon, who can help get it made. Vince also runs into veteran film producer Carl Ertz at the same rehab center. Ertz had screwed Vince out of a deal and tries to get him to make another one before relapsing. Ertz later commits suicide when Vince and Turtle try to come to his rescue which leaves both Turtle and Vince devastated and E, Drama, Scott Lavin, Ari and even Shauna rushing to their aid. A small media storm ensues just as Vince is about to undergo mandatory drug testing. He soon confesses to E that he had a couple puffs of marijuana and fears that it will jeopardize his test. The group tries to come to his rescue until Vince talks to Billy Walsh, who gets him a prosthetic penis with a clean urine sample, which the ploy works. Vince also tries to help Turtle as he tries to help a New York friend expand his restaurant business to the west coast. Turtle initially refuses his help but Vince later reveals that he didn't sell his stock out of the tequila company that Turtle helped launch. Although Turtle sold his stock, Vince bought his share to prevent Turtle from making such a mistake, making Turtle a millionaire. Vince later has an interview with a Vanity Fair reporter named Sophia Lear who writes an article that he doesn't quite agree with. Vince goes to great lengths to prove to her that he's reformed, even producing a video with women he's slept with, to highlight the gentleman that he is. He succeeds in courting her and spends an unforgettable 24 hours with her, before getting engaged to her, with the ceremony taking place in Paris. The group attends, except for E, whom Vince manages to smooth things over for him and Sloan after Vince inadvertently tells Sloan's father that she's pregnant with E's child. Vince and Sophia later get engaged and head to Paris to get married with Turtle, Drama, Ari and his wife, Melissa Gold in attendance while E and Sloan head to an unknown destination with Lavin staying behind in Los Angeles. Inspiration Entourage Executive Producer Mark Wahlberg named the character after legendary Hollywood acting teacher Vincent Chase, whom Wahlberg became friends with while working on the 1997 Bill Paxton film Traveller". However, the character of Vincent Chase is based on Mark Wahlberg himself. Wahlberg is an executive producer for "Entourage" and has achieved Hollywood success similar to the fictional success of Vincent. Fictional filmography Films Television Trivia Vincent is revealed to be lactose intolerant. Filmography Until 2011, Vincent had made seven movies, with one unfinished. The first movie he made was A Walk to Remember in 2002. In 2004 Vincent was the Co-Lead in Head on. In 2005 Vincent did Queens Boulevard directed by Billy Walsh, and in 2006 Aquaman directed by James Cameron. In 2007 Vincent also did a film by Billy Walsh - Medellin. In 2009 he played Nick Carraway in Gatsby. He also made an unfinished film - Smoke Jumpers. In 2010 Vinnce did Ferrari in which he played the lead role - Enzo Ferrari. Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Americans